Ford Evos: Cloud Connected Car

Ford has announced the Ford Evos, a Hybrid sedan concept car that is constantly connected to the cloud. While it is only a concept at the moment, it is -mostly- based on ideas and technologies that can be achievable in the near-future. For instance, having a constant connection between the car and the Internet is merely a cost issue, not a technological one.

Advertising

In Ford’s vision, the Evos knows everything about your personal preferences from the data that you have accumulated overtime (in the cloud). And by preferences, Ford means “everything” that can be gathered by modern technology: music style, sleep time, driving habits, temperature levels, movies, radio shows, friends… there are no real limits.At home

For example, the car can check your calendar and see that a meeting has been delayed, so it decides to tell your alarm clock that there’s no need to wake you up for now. The car can also guess that you will soon be on the road, and starts adapting the internal temperature. Upon leaving the proximity of the house, it tells the house’s heating system to enter power savings mode.

On the road

Obviously, the car knows where you are going and can check traffic to recommend alternate routes, if needed. Ford also suggests that it could ask the driver to go on a fun drive if there is time. To do so, the car check for what’s ahead, and if no danger is detected (traffic, accidents, weather conditions…), the driver can switch into a more sporty (versus economic) driving mode.

The car will monitor the driver’s vital stats via sensors in the seat, and can turn off the phone and remove other distracting element of the dashboard to help the driver focus on what’s important. In its concept, Ford also shows that the Evos can play a particular style of music that the driver enjoys on this road.

Driver’s health

As the car gets closer to the city, it detects for pollutants and activates a filtering system, while prompting the driver. Finally, it searches and reserves a parking spot over the internet, and guides the driver inside the parking. The car will charge wirelessly during the day, and will be ready for the return trip.

Conclusion

This is a really cool concept, and as I said in the introduction, most of the technologies are already available. However, there are a number of things that Ford will need to work out. For instance anything that is linked to the public (or private) infrastructure has to be done by a third party. Wireless charging mechanisms need to become standard for all cars and all the information gathering/reading also has to be somewhat standardized.

In the end, we hope that the Ford Evos idea will inspire a new level of cooperation and standardization, because without real team work and real standards, no project that requires public infrastructure can work. In the meantime, what do you think of this vision, and what would you like Ford to build?